Probably my favorite music video of all time and one of my favorite songs. Chris Martin had the monthlong task of studying his lyrics and learning how to perform them back to front.
“He got a tape of the song recorded backward and he listened to it over and over. He’s a very passionate guy, so he got really into it. What we learned later on is about the problems with phonetics, because you have to be very careful with the lip movement so that when you end on a sound your mouth is formed in the right way.” - Director Jamie Thraves
As Thraves put Martin through his forward paces over the three-day shoot, the singer performed the song in a backward gibberish that the director said was akin to the fictional language Hopelandish created by Icelandic mood rockers Sigur Rós. Of course, when the video was in final edits, the roles were reversed, with the film running backward and Martin singing forward. Got it?
More about this radical video at MTV.
Music video by Coldplay performing The Scientist. © 2005 EMI Records Ltd This label copy information is the subject of copyright protection. All rights reserved. © 2005 EMI Records Ltd